Read the whole thing, and then share with your friends and neighbors. “Medical insurance and public education might seem to be two different worlds with different problems. But the proposed solutions by the left were essentially the same. Here are ten descriptions that apply equally to ObamaCare and Common Core: 1) Huge federal power grab: The obvious result from bothObamaCare and Common Core is that Obama and his Czars get a bigger government to administer, more money to play with, more jobs for their loyal troops, and more control over people’s lives.” ObamaCare and Common Core – both are bad to the bone

It all must be Bush’s fault. “That won’t be nearly enough. At some point the excuses grow tiresome and unconvincing, and the bill comes due. We are at that stage in the Obama presidency. Reality is crushing his presidency. And there’s nothing America’s most famous former community organizer seems able to do about it. This is not an easy time for anyone who reveres this nation.” Reality Is Crushing the Obama Presidency

They must all be racists. “Is there an anti-Obama rebellion brewing out there in the Heartland? Looks like it in the lame duck’s absence. This week two prominent administration members — including First Lady Michelle Obama — were forced to cancel planned speeches there in the face of protests and even a high school student petition opposing her scheduled graduation speech.” Protests force Holder, Michelle Obama to cancel speeches; What’s going on?

We must wake them up. “You’re being led by people from the president on down who think that being paid according to the value you bring to an organization is unfair. Stop and think about it. Barack Obama, Jack Lew, Jay Carney, take your pick, Joe Biden, they all believe that being paid according to the value you bring to an organization is not fair. You know why? Because not everybody can bring the same value as you do. You have an unfair advantage and you shouldn’t make more money than somebody because of that. They’re just as good a person as you. They may not be as talented. They may not be as creative, but they shouldn’t be punished for that. They also believe, and check the landscape of the country to see if this is happening, they also believe that people will work just as hard for very little money as they will for a lot of money. They really believe that. If you give them health care with their small salary, they’ll work just as hard. These people do not know you. They do not know this country. They think they do. And they’re ruining it. They’re destroying it.” A Message to Millennials: Lose Faith in Obama, Not the Country

1-Percenters

Calling out a “1 per center” who pretends like she’s not. “While U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren sleeps in her $5 million mansion in Cambridge, and got paid $350,000 to teach just one class at Harvard, she had the audacity to say in an interview with Jon Stewart this week that “the system is rigged to benefit the rich.” Yes, Sen. Warren, that would be you. Under a free-market, capitalist system, you became a U.S. senator and multimillionaire whose own net worth hovers around $14.5 million, according to personal financial disclosure reports filed in 2011. [Snip] If Sen. Warren truly cared about the little guy, why not return most of her salary to Harvard for teaching just one class and lobby fellow liberal professors to do the same? Then Harvard could actually lower its tuition costs for all students. Sounds like practical income redistribution to me. [Snip] Bottom line: Sen. Warren and other political one-percenters spout phony slogans just to get re-elected and siphon money from their donors’ wallets. It’s time for college students to get street-smart and stop swallowing every vacuous soundbite.” Cohen: One-percenter Liz Warren milks system then slams it in phony soundbites

“Which is why Justice Stephen Breyer, who usually is a member of the liberal bloc, concurred in the court’s judgment. He was hoist by his own progressivism. Because Breyer believes that democracy — the right of majorities to have their way — trumps most competing values most of the time, he is generally deferential to the preferences of legislatures, and, in this instance, deferred to the results of a popular referendum. Doing so, he remained consistent with a stance that generally serves the progressive agenda of reducing constitutional impediments to expansive government.” In a tangle over euphemisms for affirmative action

It’s always about power. “During the Punic Wars Cato and other notable Romans argued thatCarthago Delenda Est, that is, Carthage must be destroyed. Substitute sympathetic ordinary Americans, like Cliven Bundy, Joe the Plumber, and the superbly talented Sarah Palin for Carthage, and you have the rallying cry of the Democrats and their media enablers who will use any pretext to demonize those who dare to challenge their power. [Snip] But Bundy must be tarred because this latest government action against him exposes the corruption of Majority Senate Leader Reid, brings into question the continued control of such vast stretches of the West by the federal government and shows horrified Americans the brutal tactics, lies, and objectives of the Bureau of Land Management. It’s race used as a “look, squirrel” distraction from the obvious. Don’t be like the white toga ninnies. Do not flee from the forum.” Cliven Bundy Delenda Est

Readying another Chicago politician for the White House? “But by offering to polish Emanuel’s image and by the editorial choices made to carry out that offer, this effort has degenerated into blatant propaganda. I have not watched the series, but Chicagoan Ed Lasky, who started to watch, comments, “I stopped watching after 2 episodes — it was boring and repetitive and clearly biased to present a sensitive, empathetic and supremely effective Emanuel. It was clearly a snow job. The producers could have presented a much more realistic view of Chicago: corruption, fudging of crime stats to make Emanuel look better, racial politics, a blue city dying via liberalism.” Wow! Emails expose CNN’s propaganda series on Rahm Emanuel

The Drug Culture

I just don’t get the Left’s war on cigarettes, but their support for the legalilzation of pot. “With grass usage already so rampant and not doing a hell of a lot to promote the social good, maybe we should spend more time and money on awareness, prevention, and rehab (like we do with alcohol and cigarettes) than on legalization. And if it does become one more vice we throw into the pot, we better be prepared to double down on such efforts.” Asking the Right Questions about Pot

Elections

We must come together if our country is to survive. “It’s good that Chris is so concerned, and I’m sure you’re all grateful for his contributions to the discussion. But I have to wonder why there’s only one cutting edge of a double bladed sword mentioned in the endless parade of articles on this subject. The default assumption always seems to be that the 2016 Republican primary will eventually boil down to some sort of showdown between the “establishment” candidate and the “grassroots” candidate. Fair enough. We saw something similar in the last go around and there’s no reason to suspect that it won’t happen again. But the second part of the assumption seems to always be that the Tea Party candidate will lose and then – maybe – their supporters in the grassroots will stay home, leading to yet another humiliating defeat for the GOP.” WaPo writer terribly worried about GOP infighting

Free Speech

Standing up for what’s right. “The incident took place at an outdoor campus event in January at the University of Hawaii, Hilo, where students were handing out material were handing out material about their organizations, according to the plaintiffs, Merritt Burch and Anthony Vizzone. An administrator told Burch and Vizzone, both members of the university’s Young Americans for Liberty chapter, that they were not allowed to hand out the Constitutions.” Hawaii Students Sue University for Barring Distribution of Pocket Constitutions

Intimidation of conservatives is going to get worse. “The Internal Revenue Service has revoked the charitable status of a conservative nonprofit group that disseminated statements critical of Democrats Hillary Clinton and John Kerry a decade ago. This is President Obama’s unambiguous warning shot calculated to intimidate conservative activists ready to work against Hillary Clinton if she decides to seek the presidency.” Hillary, the Left-Wing Money Machine and a New IRS Crackdown

“Gun rights have become a metaphor for something larger: a feeling, this sense of something that’s slipping away, a yearning for individual rights.”…

“We’re at a precipice in this country. I know every one of you feels it. These next two and a half years are going to determine how things go for the rest of our lives. I have never seen it on edge the way it is now.” [Snip]

Equal outcomes vs. equal opportunity. And for now, the Left’s preference for equal outcomes is winning. “Still the signs of mandated equality exist all around us. Why does every kid on every sports team get a trophy, even if he or she never scored a point? Why have so many schools eliminated valedictorians? Why does the SAT test continue to be dumbed down? Why is the federal government imposing Common Core which institutionalizes reduced standards for education? Why does the Left think banning affirmative action is racist, when the reverse is true? There are countless examples of enforced equality/mediocrity that we have become so accustomed to. We have become so familiar with the dictates of political correctness, multiculturism, the gender-is-a social-construct nonsense, that we barely notice the destructive harm done to our national character.” Government-Mandated Equality

It’s not just vanishing in Chicago. (I’ve posted this before, but it’s worth a re-post. “In cities around the world, two-tier societies are becoming increasingly common. While much ink has been spilled over widening income inequality in cities such as New York, where Bill de Blasio rode his “tale of two cities” theme all the way to City Hall, most attempts to solve the problem have focused on the poor, not the middle class. Liberal mayors across the country are proposing an array of policies intended to address income inequality, including minimum-wage hikes—Seattle’s mayor wants to raise it to $15 per hour—affordable-housing mandates, and tax increases on the wealthy. At the same time, they’ve made massive investments in upscale neighborhoods and business districts. But no one is championing the middle class, even rhetorically.” Chicago’s Vanishing Middle Class

Long article that doesn’t mention why, but does remind us that “every single day” President Obama is going to fight for the middle class. What a crock of baloney. “The problems of an anxiety-ridden middle class have grabbed the attention of politicians and scholars — and become the centerpiece of President Obama’s second-term agenda. “Every single day, I’m going to fight for these priorities: To shift the odds back in favor of more working- and middle-class families and to keep America where you can always make it if you try,” he said in a recent address. Wages for millions of American workers, particularly those without college degrees, have flat-lined. Census figures show the median household income in 2012 was no higher than it was 25 years ago. Men’s median wages were lower than in the early 1970s. Meanwhile, many of the expenses associated with a middle-class life have increased beyond inflation. This includes college tuition, whose skyrocketing cost has laid siege to a bedrock principle of the American Dream: that your children will do better than you did.” ‘Happy Days’ no more: Middle-class families squeezed as expenses soar, wages stall

How can such an anti-business get away with saying he is fighting for the middle class every single day? “And you know what, businesses listen to what president’s say. They get the message. From day one, this administration has been anti-business. So instead of making long-term investments that would create tens of thousands of jobs, companies have held onto their profits and gone into a deep crouch. Or they’ve stashed their money overseas.” Anti-Business Obama Strikes Again: His Keystone veto reminds firms he just doesn’t care.

Racism

“Flash-forward back to 2014 and the mess that L.A. Clippers owner Donald Sterling created for himself, breaking today. Showbiz gossip Website TMZ has audio allegedly of a conversation between Sterling and his girlfriend, in which Sterling demands that, as TMZ paraphrases, “he does NOT want her bringing black people to his games … including Magic Johnson. [Snip] In 1962, George Preston Marshall (a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1932 and 1936) was the owner of the Washington Redskins and a stone cold racist — he was the last owner of the NFL to integrate his team, under the orders of NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle and Bobby Kennedy (in-between wiretapping Martin Luther King). If the TMZ tape is accurate, how can someone own a professional basketball team in 2014 and display that level of racism? Sterling’s not-so-sterling leftwing worldview is merely a symptom of a much larger disease. After you’ve read Douglas’ post, checkout Jonah Goldberg’s latest G-File, in which, as he puts it “America Eats Itself,” noting that “America’s elite culture is in the painful throes of an ongoing autoimmune crisis,” Jonah concludes.” Sterling Cooper Clipper Meltdown

Bundy’s comments were apparently selectively edited by the NY Times to make theme appear more unsavory. What a surprise. “Who’s worse? Sterling or Cliven Bundy? Both men are about the same age, and the notion of a generational outlook on race cannot be dismissed. That doesn’t make their views less heinious, but by way of explaining how some could possess such backward views of race and race relations. In this, party affiliation and ideological identification doesn’t matter much. But you can bet that Sterling’s support of liberal candidates and causes will be downplayed while Bundy’s ties to the GOP – whatever they are – are highlighted in the media.” Owner of NBA’s LA Clippers caught in racist tirade

Terrorism

But according to President Obama, al Qaeda is on the run… “But the arrests in Turkey and Israel show that al Qaeda already possesses nerve gas. And it is reasonable to fear that it wants to use them against the West, particularly given the competition al Qaeda now faces from new terrorist organizations.The competition places pressure on al Qaeda to do something big. As Robert Kagan said yesterday, when terrorists compete, we lose.” IS AL QAEDA PLANNING A CHEMICAL ATTACK ON THE WEST?

We’ve got a terrific line up for our annual Christmas program. First up will be the Ignite Barbershop Quartet. Ignite began singing together after a quartet matching party in November 2015. They are all Champion members of Region 21’s Scottsdale Chorus and they will be singing for us!

After lunch, Congressional District 6 congressman, Representative David Schweikart, will talk to us about what’s happening in Washington DC, and provide us with a status of the Tax Bill working its way through the House of Representatives and Senate.

Finally, member Julia Graham will install our new 2018/2019 officers. We look forward to seeing you and be sure to bring a friend or two or three!